


When The Night Gets Long

by nitpickyabouttrains



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, You took a Pinch without getting a signup, Yuletide 2014, Yuletide Treat, for angst, pretty people getting caught in the rain, sad rain, thank you for playing, tis the season
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2014-12-16
Packaged: 2018-03-01 19:24:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2784860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nitpickyabouttrains/pseuds/nitpickyabouttrains
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>By the time Caitlin got home, it was pouring. Reaching into her bag, her fingers met with nothing but the bottom of the purse. She had forgotten her keys at the lab.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When The Night Gets Long

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kikibug13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikibug13/gifts).



By the time Caitlin got home, it was pouring. Reaching into her bag, her fingers met with nothing but the bottom of the purse. She had forgotten her keys at the lab.

“Damn it,” she said, letting her head fall forward against the door in frustration.

She was tired and worn, emotionally drained. Barry had taken down another meta-human less than an hour before. Another week, another mystery, and another headache for her. Caitlin had sat there in the lab, listening over the com, while Barry fought. She knew she was not the one out there, her life was not on the line, not really, but it was still hard.

Every time she watched him walk out the door, she flashed back to her fiancé, to Ronny. Every time Barry said he had to do it, for the city, to save other people, she winced internally. It wasn’t that she did not want to help people. She just wanted to do it without breaking her own heart again.

That was proving impossible. She had only been working with Barry for a few months and already she was emotionally attached. In each fight, there was the chance that he would be hurt too badly, that the speed healing wouldn’t  help. For him to not come back at all.

It was starting to take a toll.

Caitlin could practically feel her nerves frying. Cisco had been telling her she looked like hell for weeks, in that strange way of his which she knew meant he cared. But that had not stopped her from exploding at him and yelling. It wasn’t his fault. He was a good friend. Caitlin was just having some trouble relaxing, especially when it seemed like lives were always on the line.

She forced herself to take a deep breath. The storm was clearly not passing any time soon. She was soaking wet from standing out in the rain. He boots squished when she took a step back toward her car, thinking she could go back to the lab and find her keys.

Her car seemed far away, and the idea of getting all the way back to work, just to come back home, in this terrible weather, when she wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball with a warm mug of tea - it seemed impossible. It seemed like a feat she was not going to be able to accomplish. She could feel the weariness in her bones.

It was times like this when she wished she had gotten to know her new neighbors, or that someone had her spare key. Ronnie had, before, because they had been living together. Back then, she would have just texted him and he would have been there in seconds to let her in, to save her.

Clearly that was not an option now.

But before going all the way back to the lab, she wanted to find out if the keys were even there. They could have fallen out at another point. Cisco had left the lab with her, but Barry had still been there when she left, getting ready to grab dinner with Iris. She had no idea what time that was supposed to be, but it was possible he was still at Star Labs, since it was not like he needed time to get to Iris.

With a sigh, she picked up her phone and hit the speed dial she had recently programmed in for Barry. It picked up quickly, in the middle of the second ring.

“Barry?” Caitlin said, because there was a second of pause and she was not sure if someone else could have picked up his phone. Her voice came out rougher than she was expecting, sort of strained, as if she had given in to the tears she was barely keeping at bay.

“Caitlin?” Barry said loudly. There was noise all around him, but his face must have been pressed close to his phone, because she could hear him clearly “Is something wrong?”

“No, I-“ she started, but there was a crash of lightning and her voice cracked just a little. She cleared her throat, to try and make it seem better, to make herself sound more sure. “I take it you aren’t at the lab anymore?”

“No, I left to meet Iris for dinner,” Barry told her.

From the background, Caitlin could hear Iris talking.  Barry, who is that on the phone? Is everything alright? You look like you just got some terrible news.

“Never mind then,” Caitlin said, not wanting to interrupt his private time. She knew he liked Iris, she knew he looked forward to times like this, alone with her. And Caitlin did not want to be the reason his well-deserved night off got disturbed.

There was a puff of air from the other side of the line, a huff of protest. “Caitlin- you know I can be in the lab in a second if you need me there. Just say the word.”

“It’s nothing ‘super’, really, I can figure it out myself,” Caitlin said, closing her eyes and concentrating on keeping it together. Barry was her friend, it was not his job to make sure she didn’t fall apart. He would make it his job, she knew he would, but that was not right. “I’m not even at the lab, I’m outside of my house.  Just forget I called, enjoy your night.”

There was a beat of silence, where even the noise from around Barry seemed to be muffled. He must be holding his hand to the phone, she realized. Then Barry’s voice came back. “I’ll be right there.”

“You don’t need to-“ Caitlin started to say.

But she was talking to a dial tone.

With a sigh, she closed the phone and stuck it back into her pocket. She had barely pulled her hand back out when there was a blur and Barry was standing next to her. He had no umbrella with him, but he was perfectly dry. After a few seconds, Caitlin knew that was no longer going to be true. He could avoid rain if he ran fast enough, but not standing on her stoop.

“Are you alright?” Barry asked, his hand going to her shoulder, a concerned look on his face. His eyes scanned her up and down, as if searching for an injury, for something wrong.

“I was about to tell you not to bother coming,” Caitlin told him, “when you hung up on me.”

His eyes narrowed at her, as he listened to the words she was saying and the questions she was not answering. “You aren’t okay, are you? Why are you standing outside in the rain?”

“Because I lost my keys,” Caitlin said, looking away from him so he would not see the tears on the edges of her eyes. It had been a long night. A hard night. And this was not making it better. “That’s why I called you, to see if you were still in the lab and you saw them.”

He reached out his other hand and turned her head gently back toward him. “I’m glad you called me,” he said, his voice softer than she had ever heard it.

“I didn’t mean to ruin your night,” Caitlin tried to tell him. “I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for,” Barry said, shooting her one of his grins. “And you haven’t ruined my night. You are my friend and you needed help. That’s a night well spent, as far as I am concerned.” Then his eyes seemed to light up. “Hang on, I’ll be right back.”

He was gone again before she had a chance to say anything in response. Once again she was standing there alone in the rain. Only now there was the remnants of a spot of heat on her shoulder, from where his hand had been resting. She slouched over toward the door, letting it take the brunt of her weight, and sighed, tired.

There was something about Barry being next to her one second and gone the next which still left her feeling off. The sensation of having a person there, and then gone again in a part of a second, it was jarring.

Just as quickly as he was gone, he was back. “Found them,” Barry said, holding out his hand with her keys in them.

“Thanks,” Caitlin said, taking them from his hands and sliding them into the door.

She let out a loud sigh of relief, walking into her house. Without a thought, she shed her jacket and boots. In the middle of the second boot, she heard the door close behind her, and the sound of steps. Slowly she turned, as the boot fell to the ground, to see Barry standing in the entryway.

“I don’t think I have been in your house before,” Barry said, looking around, his eyes wide as he took in all the pictures on the walls.

“Thank you again,” Caitlin said. “I probably would have ended up breaking into my own house if you hadn’t come and helped. And I am sorry again about taking you away from dinner with Iris, I know you were looking forward to it. You can go back, if you want, I won’t be offended.”

“Do you want me to leave?” Barry asked, his cheeks turning red.

“No, I just figured...” Caitlin was getting confused, because it was not at all what she was saying, she just did not want him to feel bad. “you would be in a rush to get back to Iris.”

“I’m not going back,” Barry said, shrugging, the corner of his mouth quirking up at the side. “I told Iris a friend needed my help. This is more important.”

“Why?” Caitlin asked before she could stop herself. 

Barry’s face scrunched up, like he didn’t understand the question. “You were crying, on the phone. Of course I came.”

Caitlin looked at him, standing in her house, dripping. There was such an earnest look on his face. She bit her lip, but nodded. “I’ll get you a towel, so you don’t get everything wet.”

“Does that mean I can stay?” Barry asked, his face lighting up.

She had been looking forward to some time alone, to resting. But she could see that he did not want to leave, that he wanted to keep her company. And she would be lying if she said she wouldn’t enjoy a little company. Sometimes she really missed living with someone, having someone around to talk to, about whatever was on her mind.

And if his plans for the night were already canceled, he had nowhere else to go. She couldn’t very well kick him out, after he had helped her like this. 

He said they were friends, and he was right. 

“Yeah,” Caitlin said, smiling back a little, “you can stay.”

She just had to be willing to let him in.


End file.
